Prodigy
by Pushmipullu
Summary: Four years after the disappearance of C-Kira, Near is called to New York to investigate a case of mysterious suicide bombings. But all is not as it seems, as it becomes clear that the perpetrator has one motive; to eliminate L for good.


Chapter 1: Secrets

 **ACCESS DENIED**

Near bit his lip as the red letters flashed across the wall of monitors he was observing. It was around 4:00 in the morning, and he had been trying to access the same files for hours. He was sitting quietly, hunched over in his chair. He held a small LEGO brick in his left hand, and typed on his laptop with his right. It wasn't unusual for Near to do two or more things at once, but it was unusual to see him fixated on something that wasn't a puzzle or toy for such a long time. The young man narrowed his eyes, and after a few second of inactivity, began to type again.

It had been four years since the end of the C-Kira case. Since then, life for Near had been rather uneventful. New cases came and went, but to Near they were like child's play. None of them were even remotely challenging to the detective, who was able to solve most of them easily and quickly. On one hand, this left him with plenty of free time, but on the other hand, it also left him extremely bored.

That is, up until now.

Near glanced at the clock in the bottom right corner of the computer screen. It was now 4:05. He sighed heavily as he realized how long he had been working on the files. It shouldn't have been taking him that long, after all, these were L's files, even if they were several years old. For some strange reason, the old files were heavily encrypted, as if they contained some top secret information that no one should know.

Near bit his right thumbnail, and thought hard. He thought back to the day the files were discovered. They'd been hidden in the very room he was in now, inside a panel in the wall. Even Roger didn't know about their existence. Not to mention they were all on floppy discs, indicating they were rather old.

" _And why were they hidden in this room? What could L have been trying to hide that he didn't want anyone to find? It's not like him to want to keep information hidden like this, and judging from the dates on these files, they weren't made during a time when he was concerned about them being leaked, or were they?"_

Near closed his eyes. Even though he was L's successor, his mentor's actions were often a puzzle to him, seeing as they had never actually met. Near's information about L mostly came from archived case files. L's true personality was still a mystery to him, so he judged his actions by how he dealt with various cases. But this was something that didn't match up with his usual pattern, which made Near especially eager to solve the puzzle.

Near opened his eyes again, and exhaled deeply. He began to type again, this time more confidently. And a moment after he pressed the enter button, a smile appeared on his face. Bright green letters flashed across the computer screens, announcing his success.

 **ACCESS GRANTED**

The young detective quickly began to examine the files. To his surprise, they were all audio files, each one labeled with a series of numbers. This was not L's usual way of organizing his files, in most cases they were labeled clearly. The fact that they were only numbered indicated to Near that this was private information only his predecessor wanted to have access to. There was also an odd, password protected file amongst the audio files, which puzzled Near. He would have to work on it later.

For now, he would listen to the audio files. Near opened the first one, then waited patiently for it to load. But what he heard was not what he expected.

"London Murder Case AB-22. Case started: March 19th, 1989. 13 people reported missing between March 13 and March 18. First victim was discovered at-"

Near frowned as he listened to the file. It was definitely L's voice he was hearing, but all he was talking about were the details of a case he had worked on. It was hardly anything that needed to be kept secret. Near was more than a little disappointed that all his hours of work had been practically useless. He listened to two other files, but they weren't much different from the first. They were also about cases that L had solved long ago, and contained little information that Near didn't already know.

" _What were you thinking, L? Is there some kind of message hidden in these clips, or are they exactly what they look like?"_

Suddenly, Near's laptop began to beep. Near closed it, and then pressed a button on his desk. A large 'W' appeared on the screens in front of him.

"Watari?" Near asked.

"The meeting with the NYCPD is about to start. Shall I hook you up?"

"Go ahead."

The detective carefully got up from his seat, and walked into the corner of the room. He pressed another button on the wall, and suddenly the room was flooded with sunshine. A large window had appeared in one of the walls of the room, and the New York City skyline could be seen clearly, shining in the rays of the sunrise. Near walked over to the window and stared outside for a few moments, before walking towards an enormous tower of LEGO bricks which was situated in the center of the room. He crouched in the ground and began selecting pieces to add to the strange tower.

"Good morning, this is L."

Suddenly, the ground trembled a bit, and an enormous, loud boom shook the building. Near dropped his bricks and looked out the window, just in time to see a large, black cloud of smoke rise from among the buildings, obscuring the sun from his view.

He frowned deeply.

" _So this is how it starts..."_


End file.
